- Has anyone died from eating a carolina reaper pepper series#
- Has anyone died from eating a carolina reaper pepper windows#
Emboldened by that, I continued to try more samples, powering through various Carolina Reaper products, including the infamous "Last Dab." Currie even gave me a taste of his own private tincture, which I kind of enjoyed. He explained to me that women can often handle the heat better, because Ph levels vary between the sexes. "Don't blow your nose too hard," Currie warns me. No problem! I took a taste, dealt with the heat, recovered quickly and wanted more, even as my eyes were tearing and nose starting to run. So we moved on to a slightly hotter hot sauce, a habanero. "Someone got that on the internet, and then the internet just caught fire," Currie says. In 2009, a graduate student from a local college did some testing on his peppers and declared them the hottest in the world. He started selling product at farmers markets. I started reading all the rules and all the laws, and I insured myself for a whole lot of money, because I didn't want to kill anybody," he says.Ĭurrie estimates first year revenues were $89,000. He estimates his startup costs were around $400,000. His bride, Linda, convinced him to start bottling his hot sauces for sale.Ĭurrie had been working in banking at the time to make some money, but in 2003 he cashed out all his savings and maxed out every credit card he could get his hands on to start PuckerButt Pepper Company. "Nine months later we were married," says Currie. But one night after a meeting, Currie overheard her talking about how much she loved salsa, so he brought her some made from his peppers. "Honestly, I'd have to ask the attorney.")Īt recovery meetings in his new hometown, he met "a hot blonde" who wasn't interested in him. "When I was able to get out of Michigan legally, I came down here right away." (When asked what legal issues kept him in Michigan, he laughs. "We drove the next morning to it, and it turned out to be a rehab facility, and I got clean." Sober with salsaĮd Currie decided he wanted to move back home to his parents' place in South Carolina and start growing peppers again (his mother was a master gardener). "I actually stopped at a friend of mine's house, just because I wound up there, and they knew where the sign was for this place," Currie says. So he packed up his Camaro "with a bunch of booze and drugs and guns" and started driving in the blizzard. Then he saw a vision: "I saw this angel, it was a white apparition." Currie says it was a female, "and that apparition told me to go to a certain place." Currie says the angel told him to look for particular signage, though he didn't recognize it. "I just had that hole, that hole that all people in addiction know," he explains.
Has anyone died from eating a carolina reaper pepper windows#
There was a blizzard that night in the Michigan town where Currie was living, and he says he opened all the doors and windows of his condo to let the snow in, planning to lay down and freeze to death. "I was a functional addict, essentially.I was miserable on the inside."įinally, one night in 1999, "I wanted to die," he says. "I wanted money so that I could keep on partying," he says. "That was a sign from God, I think," says Currie.Ĭurrie kept chasing money over the next decade, though not always legally.
Has anyone died from eating a carolina reaper pepper series#
His first day on the job after passing his Series 7 test was October 19, 1987, also known as Black Monday, when global markets collapsed. "I liked drinking with the frat boys," he says.Ĭurrie eventually became a stock broker. He grew up in Michigan and ended up on the seven-year college plan, bouncing from school to school. "I started studying peppers back in 1981 when I went to college," says Currie. That's because there was a good chance none of this would happen. "If I told you 10 years ago that this would be happening, you would call me a bold faced liar," Currie says, hardly believing it himself. Revenues are growing around 26 percent a year. PuckerButt Pepper's founder says last year sales were around $1.5 million, most of it wholesale to food manufacturers. "I won't lie to you, eating a Carolina Reaper is like eating lava, it hurts when you initially eat it," Currie says, "but eventually that endorphin rush takes over, and it feels good." The pain they cause is followed by something similar to a runner's high. (Theoretically capsaicin toxicity could be deadly, but your body would not allow you to digest enough extreme chilis to do the job.) Indeed, Currie says they can actually be good for you.
He also insists super hot peppers cannot kill you. In fact, he starts every morning with a few drops of his own private hot sauce tincture. For beginners, Currie suggests following up any pepper sampling with bananas, donuts or protein bars to help with recovery.Įven breathing the air in Currie's store can make one's eyes water and throat feel a little raw, but he is oblivious.
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